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Daily Archives: October 6, 2010

I try to focus most of my writing on this blog to the City of Worcester and its immediate environs, but those of you who are regular readers may know that I get 90% of my news from the BBC World Service.

I started my love affair with the World Service when I was in college. I had an evening dishwashing job in one of the school cafeterias. When I got out of work, usually about 10:30pm, I’d walk to my dorm, pick up a Wall Street Journal by the door (as there were students who subscribed but never, ever read their newspapers), headed upstairs to take my shower and then settle in for a leisurely evening with two of my greatest pleasures: reading the WSJ from cover to cover and listening to the BBC World Service.

When my older son was born, I was a stay-at-home parent, and the World Service often kept me company in the middle of the night. (I particularly recall one morning, around 3am, when my husband reminded me that parts of an Ian Fleming James Bond novel was on the Story, so I needed to stay up a bit longer.)

When I returned to work, I had a less-than-intellectually-stimulating job, and the World Service kept me from losing my mind.

Since I started listening, there have been numerous program changes: the 15-minute Story has gone, as have separate programming for the different arts, a great women’s program, Reporting Religion (with Dan Damon); the hour-long Outlook was replaced with a half-hour shadow of its former self.

And I’m not just saying that because he commented on this very blog a few weeks ago!!! (Yes, it appears that that was really him. And, yes, I totally squealed when I saw that.)

Anyway, if this matters to you, if you feel that The Interview is too important to lose, or if you feel that you’re really going to miss that one hour a week of Mark Coles sharing world music, please share your thoughts at Over to You.

The Building 19 store on Grafton Street seems to be perpetually moving things around, which makes it difficult for regular visitors to return for more of a particular item. This past Sunday my family and I visited again to fetch several things, including whatever further supply of Graffiti Remover might be left. You see, dear reader, last time we only bought one bottle, and when I wrote about it here with the intent of allowing any/all of you to get over there and snatch up a bottle or two before they were gone, there were still several left.

Per usual, they had moved everything once again, and it took us about a half hour to discover that they had transported the Graffiti Remover from the far left front side of the building to the far right rear in an out-of-the-way nook formerly occupied by furniture.

Anyway, we found the last full bottle and bought it. Fair’s fair, I gave you all several months to get over there to get some. Anyway, there’s one bottle left there now that has only about a quarter of the fluid still left in it. It’s yours, if you’re desperate enough. I’m sure the Service Desk will mark it down further for you, considering its depleted status.

So what does all this have to do with my “Cheap Worcester Wednesday” tag? I just wanted to let you know that there’s a new section called “Closeouts” in the center of the store. The stuff there is even cheaper than what it’d normally be in Building 19. And much of it is in small quantities. So if you’re traveling up Grafton St. in the near future, consider stopping in to Building 19 to have a peek at what’s marked down for closeout that day, be it Wednesday or any other day. And you might find yourself some other bargains elsewhere in the store, like we did.

My personal favorite find was a copy of The Fantastic Mr. Wani for $3. If there’s a young child in your life, run right out there and get this book. It’s awesome. (In fact, I think I need to go back and buy another copy or two as gifts!)

(Which reminds me: there should be a word for the feeling you get after you’ve driven about two miles after your Building 19 shopping trip, when you realize you should have bought another X, but it’s too far away to justify going back.)

I don’t know that any of the Burns Bridge presentation will be new, but I won’t be able to attend, so I just wanted to let anyone who might be interested know.

Also — the meeting minutes from the September 8th public information meeting have been posted.

If you’ve always wanted to receive the Historical Commission meeting agendas in your email and never knew how, email planning@ci.worcester.ma.us and write “Subscribe” in the subject line. In the body, just put your name and your affiliation.